The Vale Squad
This is the first episode of Vale, season 6. Written by Rainy. Read, enjoy, & comment! '' '' ''The Vale Squad'' I was paralyzed. For a few minutes, I barely registered anything that was going on around me, locked in, trapped in the beam of his golden gaze. Ryan seemed equally mesmerized. He looked at me like he couldn't believe I was right in front of him. Finally, he whispered, "Breezeflight." Just my name. The spell broke at the sound of the word. I looked around and realized we were alone; the others had already gone past into the camp. I should do the same, I thought vaguely to myself, but my paws didn't understand the command. "Is Lily here?" I finally blurted. It was the stupidest thing in the world to say, but it was all I could think of. He looked mildly taken aback, but then bobbed his head up and down once. "Yeah. She's already inside." He looked the same on the outside--glossy black pelt, eyes as deep and captivating as sunlight, muscular and leanly built--but I could sense something had changed. There was an older, wiser, sadder look to his face. Yet even under that, I could see him. Ryan, my Ryan, witty and sarcastic and sweet. My Ryan, who had left me. "I thought you weren't coming back," I said. "You know I'm not that strong." "It wasn't strength to leave. It was weak." "It was all I could think to do. You have to let me explain, fully, what happened." But I was already shaking my head and backing away. "There's nothing you can say. You made your choice. I don't even know why you're here." "I'm here for the same reason I left. You. You're my choice, okay? I chose to leave because I thought I could protect you. I came back because I realized I could only do that by being at your side." "I don't need protection," I flared, retreating until I slammed into a tree trunk. "Ow." The tiniest hint of a smile tugged at his mouth. He took a tentative step towards me, then stopped himself. "I need you." "Then why did you leave?" I repeated, voice rising. I wanted to make him hurt at the beginning of this conversation. I wanted to make him feel the pain and bewilderment and betrayal I'd felt at finding out he was gone--but I stood no chance now, not with him looking at me like that. I had to get out of here, I had to run, find some place where I could be alone. This was too much, too overwhelming. "You know about my power, right? I had... I kept having nightmares about you. That I would cause you great pain, that something terrible would happen to you because of me. I thought I was saving you by leaving you alone. I thought staying away from you would be my redemption, the only way I could... Anyway, the point is, I was wrong. I did exactly what Aldereyes said I would do with my power: I ruined my own life. But Breezeflight, I want to fix things." He took another step forward. There was almost no distance between us now. I could feel the heat of his body and burning gaze. "I love you." I love you too. There was something screaming inside me, something smashing things and howling and tearing itself apart. He left me. He left ''me. ''He left me. "You loved me." I pulled away. "I'm no longer the cat you loved." - - - - Things were not going well for Fire. She, Minkears, Cammy and Bluebird had left Breezeflight alone with Ryan, figuring that was the best thing to do. They continued on into the camp, where Dewstar had Ren and Saori taken immediately to the medicine cat's den. The leader then turned towards the newcomers--Lily, and a dark brown tom who Fire didn't recognize, though there was something vaguely familiar about him. The tom glanced up and saw her looking at him. His eyes widened, and his jaw went slack. The next thing she knew, he had sprinted around Dewstar to stand right in front of her. He almost crashed into her, but Minkears shoved him back. "Josh!" Lily exclaimed. "What on Earth are you doing?" "Get off of her," Minkears spat angrily. "Ariel?" Fire stepped back and looked at him intently. "What do you know about my sister?" "Your sister?" He looked momentarily stunned. "Wait, you're Fire?" "Obviously," she said irritatedly. "Why do you need my sister?" Ariel. Just hearing her name was painful. "Do you remember me at all? My name is Josh. I used to be--" "You were part of the League," she realized. Around her, many SpringClan cats were staring at the two of them. Fire realized that reminding everyone of her non-Clan heritage was not the best course of action. She jerked her head. "Let's go talk in private." They trotted out of the camp. "Ariel is dead," Fire said. "What?" He stopped in his tracks and stared at her in disbelief. "You're kidding." "Why in the world would I joke about my sister being dead?" she demanded tersely. He scanned her face fleetingly, and she was shocked to see devastation encompassing his expression as he realized she was telling the truth. "Just who were you to my sister anyway?" "Keep your voice down. I told your friends, Ryan and Lily, that I needed to find Ariel because she killed a cat I loved, Jewel." "Are you insane? Ariel would never have killed anyone. And who is Jewel?" "No one. She doesn't exist. I don't love her, I was in love with Ariel." Fire scowled. "No you weren't. I would've known." "Would you? You've never told the Clan where you're really from, have you?" Ice shot through Fire's bloodstream. "What did you say?" "I was talking to Ryan and Lily... They seem under the impression that you just worked for the League for a little while, escaped, and joined up with this Clan." "T--That's what happened." "I don't understand. Why wouldn't you tell them the truth?" Fire's voice dropped into a growl. "You don't know what you're talking about." "Really? So no one ever questioned why your father had a Clan name but you and your sister didn't? Or why the League would be so perturbed by you running away that they'd kill your sister to get you to return? That doesn't even make sense!" She had to find out how much he knew. "So what do you think I'm hiding?" "You're from GreenClan," Josh said. "That's preposterous." "Is it? Didn't you hear what I said earlier? I loved Ariel." "She didn't love you back," Fire said cruelly, before she could stop herself, "or she would've told me." Josh's eyes flashed with hurt, but he subdued it almost immediately. "That's not the point. We were close." "Did she tell you she was from GreenClan?" "No, but I managed to piece it together. When you know someone that well, they can't hide much from you. Which makes me wonder how you managed to hide the truth about you from these cats for so long. Let me guess: you've refused to get close to anyone. Pretended to befriend them but held them at a cool distance when it comes to giving them any part of your heart." Fire's throat felt dry. "It's not like that," she said helplessly. She truly did consider Breezeflight and the others her friends--but Josh was right. She had pushed them away very calculatedly in order to ensure there were certain things about her they'd never pick up on. Eventually, they had accepted those borders and stopped trying to get any closer to her, which was what she wanted. Right? "I still don't understand why you lied to these cats," Josh said. "It doesn't make any sense." "Why did you lie to Ryan and Lily?" she challenged. "Why invent a cat and claim Ariel murdered them when you could just tell them the truth?" "Because I wanted to know how much they knew about her," he said. "So I tested out a few claims about Ariel to gauge their reactions. They knew she was blind, but they didn't know that she wasn't born blind." Fire stiffened. "She told you that. Did she tell you how she lost her sight?" "No, she didn't." He appraised me critically. "Tell me the truth, Fire. All of it. I have to understand why Ariel's path never fell in with mine." "You'll never understand," she said bitterly. "Our family bears an ancient curse that normal cats can't even begin to fathom." "The powers of legend," Josh said without missing a beat. She glared at him. "Okay, know-it-all. Yes, the powers of legend. But they've changed with Ariel's death. They've split up. I have one part of the power: I can sense the pain of others and lend them my own strength to ease it. Ryan has another part, the ability to foresee the future. And a SpringClan apprentice, Brightpaw, has the shadowhopping ability." "It's split up? Among cats that aren't even from your bloodline? That doesn't make any sense." "I have a feeling that it does." Josh frowned. "What are you talking about?" Fire took a deep breath. "Get ready. I'm about to tell you the truth." His eyebrows went up. "I get the feeling that's not something that happens very often." Something told Fire that he wasn't trying to insult her, merely stating a fact. "It's about to happen now." She took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself. "My father was a GreenClan cat, but while the whole kill-League-cats craze was going on, he had an affair with a cat from the Tribe of Snow Mountain." "The Tribe of Snow Mountain," echoed Josh. "Cats who live to the north, I'm assuming? Past the edge of the vale, where the ground starts sloping upward." "Yes." He let out a long whistle. "You've come a long way from your roots." Tell me about it. "Long story short, my mother died, and my father decided to permanently leave GreenClan. The only way to do that was to join up with the League, who was moving southward to escape GreenClan's massacres. But Aldereyes was never good with loyalty, and he soon left the League as well." "It was just you and Ariel then," said Josh. "And then you escaped without her." Fire stared at the ground. "It wasn't quite like that. The plan was for both of us to leave at the same time, but Ariel backed out at the last moment. She said there was something she needed to do before she left, but that it was vital that I follow through with the plan on my own." Sucking in his breath, Josh said, "You don't think she stayed for me, do you?" "I kind of got the feeling that she had something big she wanted to do to sabotage Claron before she left--but then again, I never knew about you two, so maybe it was you. I don't know. Whatever it was, she never got the chance. The League killed her." "Why didn't she save herself? Between all three of her powers, you'd think she'd foresee it and shadowhop herself to safety." "I've been asking myself that, and I finally think I have the answer. She gave up her power before she died. She knew it had to be split up, she knew that the time for it to be passed on had come." "Did she know she was about to die?" Josh asked, his voice broken. Fire shook her head, shivering. Ariel, my brave, selfless sister. "When we were young, our father used to tell us a story to explain why we had the powers of legend. According to him, all the cats of the vale, including the Tribe of Snow Mountain, were united under a single declaration called the Prophecy of the Rocks. He said that though our powers would carry us through many generations, only when the time came for the Prophecy of the Rocks to be fulfilled would we truly shine." Josh looked like his head was about to explode, and she couldn't blame him. As a kit, she had regarded Aldereyes's story as no more than amusing tales told to keep them entertained and help them learn about their family. Now, after all she'd seen and experienced thanks to her unique bloodline, she knew better than to take anything her father had ever told her lightly. My father. The most useless cat in the galaxy, she thought angrily, thinking of the many ways Aldereyes had failed she and Ariel. "Why have you not told anyone this?" exploded Josh. "Because the Prophecy of the Rocks is not to be messed with. Each major coalition of cats is supposed to receive one section of the Prophecy. No one knows what the Prophecy foretells or what it is about. And alone, no one can figure it out." "We have to work together," realized Josh. "Which means... is that why the powers of legend have split up this generation?" "I believe so." "So the Prophecy of Rocks..." "I think SpringClan has already received our section, if I'm not mistaken," Fire said. "Something about the earth quaking, and a last warrior giving a last word." "Huh." "I don't remember the entire thing; you'll have to ask Breezeflight." "This is why the Order and Viperstar's threats are so dangerous. We have to work together, not plan each other's destruction. " Josh frowned. "Who's Viperstar?" Fire sighed. "I think it's time I come clean. Come on, let's go. I need to call a meeting." - - - - "So what is this?" asked Specklenose confusedly, looking around at the gathering of cats Fire had called. "Are we restarting the Vale Squad?" Minkears and I looked at him sharply. Minkears glanced at me, as if afraid I would burst out in anger. Instead, I said, "Why not?" "Because... the original Vale Squad can never come back." The original Vale Squad. Daisyheart's face flashed through my mind's eye, her hazel eyes bright, her face tipped back in laughter. Minkears was right. The Vale Squad as it had existed when we were apprentices was dead, as were the cats we used to be as apprentices. The innocence, the ability to love and trust without fear of loss, having never experienced it in the extent I had now, were lost to me forever. But I was not lost. I looked around the circle. Fire, Specklenose, Minkears, Chamomile, Bluebird, Lily, and... Ryan. I let my eyes linger on him till he looked up, locking gazes. "I trust each one of you," I said, not breaking eye contact. "Each of you is my friend. We can be the new Vale Squad." I sucked in a breath. "Daisyheart might be gone, but her spirit, and ours, will never die. Nothing can ever stop us from committing to justice, to doing everything in our power to work for this Clan. As the Vale Squad." "I'm in," said Cammy immediately. Slowly, around the circle, cats echoed this. Lily was the last to do so, but her eyes were determined and confident when she said the words, and I trusted her. She had brought Ryan back here. Things between us might never be the same again. But I hoped he hadn't missed the message hidden in the words I'd just said. We could try again. We could let our friendship repair itself. It would take time. But I was willing to give it a chance if he was. I would push away my feelings, my memories, everything. Start anew. It wasn't perfection and it wasn't a happy ending, but it was better than shutting him out for good. I couldn't lose him. Not again. "I'm glad that we've restarted the Vale Squad that you guys used to have," said Fire quietly. "But that's not the real reason I called this meeting." Lily eyed her suspiciously. "Does this have something to do with Josh and what you two were talking about earlier?" "Yes." Fire glanced hurriedly from face to face, as if trying to summon the courage to say what she was about to say. "I've lied to all of you. And it's time I finally come clean." Night had fallen, but I was sitting outside the warriors' den by myself, flurries falling to earth around me, a cold wind in my face, unable to sleep. I heard pawsteps behind me, and Ryan's pelt brushed against mine. "Can't sleep?" "Could ask you the same thing." "How have you been, Breezeflight?" His tone was warm, sincere. "I'm fine." "Really?" And before I knew it, I was talking and spilling over with emotions, and I couldn't stop. I told him how much it hurt when Daisyheart died, and how it had never quite stopped hurting. I told him everything that had happened since he'd been gone. Trying to be a good mentor to Brightpaw. Going into Viperstar's tunnel to get the Life-Rock. Vixenkit and Owlkit, and now Cranelegs and Cloverflower had died for them. Killing the GreenClan assassin and earning the unshakable title of murderer. Poolpaw and Petalpaw's kidnapping. Seabreeze telling me to meet her in three nights--now two nights--which happened to be the same time Dewstar would meet with Viperstar to negotiate the apprentices' release. "And now Fire's talking about another Tribe of cats, and a multiple part prophecy, and I just don't get it. The world is so big and cruel, and I don't know how I can protect the cats I love..." I trailed off, and Ryan pulled me to him. I buried my face in his fur and breathed in his scent. It felt so good to be close to him after so long. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "I want to forgive you." "And I want to forgive myself," he responded, his voice muffled as he pressed his muzzle to the top of my head. "But none of that matters at this second. Right now, I just... I just want to sleep next to you. That's all I want right now." Our breaths were coming off in visible puffs of smoke in the cold air, dancing in wreaths around us. I leaned against him and realized there was only one way to survive life. Love. We didn't love because it was something superfluous and enjoyable on the side. We loved because it was the only thing strong enough to anchor ourselves to a world that was callous and cruel and full of horror. We loved because it was a way to survive. I didn't know how we were going to get through GreenClan, Viperstar, the Prophecy, and everything else piled against us. But with Ryan beside me, I felt like I stood the smallest of chances. We padded back into the warriors' den. I hesitated, then skirted my nest and moved towards him. We went down in a tangle of limbs, and he curled his body against mine, his head resting on my shoulder. "You are not the cat I loved," he whispered, just when I thought he'd finally drifted off to sleep. "You will always be the cat I love." I didn't know what to say. I pretended to be asleep, but I lay awake for a long time after he was, listening to the sound of his breathing and reflecting on the quiet strength of love and friendship, the only things that could hold our broken bits together. The End Category:Vale